TASMA'NIA, formerly VAN DIEMEN'S LAND, a considerable island in the South. Pacific ocean, between the parallels of 40° 40' to 43° 40' s. lat., and between 144° 30' to 148° 30' e. long., lying to the s. of, and separated from Australia by Bass's strait. Its greatest length, from cape Grim, on the n.w., to cape Pillar on the s.e., is 240 in. ; and its greatest breadth from e. to w., 200 m. ; its area, including the adjacent islands, about 26,300 sq. miles. The capital is kobart Town, with a pop. of situated at the base of Mt. Wellington, on the western shore of the estuary of the river Derwent. The sec ond chief town is Launceston, with a pop. of 10,668, situated at the head of the estuary of the Tamar, formed by the junction of the North and South Esk rivers. In the year 1854 the population consisted. of—males, 30,613; females, 28,261; total, 64,874. In 1874, males, 55,117; females, 49,059; total, 104,176. Total pop. in Dec., 1877, 107,104. Hobart Town and Launceston are connected by the electric telegraph, and by an excel lent macadamized road, 121 m. in length, from which good roads branch off. In 1878 there were 630 rn. of telegraph. The first line of railway, 45 m. in length, was opened in 1871, uniting Launceston with Deloraine: there are in all about 180 in. of railway.
Physical Features.—The south-eastern coast of Tasmania is deeply indented by the estuaries of the Derwent and Iluon, Storm bay, the inlet of Pitt Water, and Frederick -Henry bay. The last is protected on the s.e. by Tasman's peninsula, reserved as a penal settlement for the colony. The chief indentations on the w. coast are Macquarie har bor (formerly a penal settlement, but now uninhabited), and Port Davey. On the e. coast are Oyster bay, between Freycinet's peninsula mid the mainland ; and Spring bay, sheltered on the e. by Maria island. On the n. coast, besides the estuary of the Tamar, there are numerous smaller harbors and rivers, accessible to vessels of from BO to 300 tons. The chief of these are Circular Head, Port Sorell, and the rivers MerseyForth, Leven, Don, and Inglis. The scenery is of a bold mountainous character, varied deep narrow valleys, extensive undulating tracts of country, and open plains of limited extent. Among the principal mountains are Ben Lomond (5,002 ft.), Cradle mount (5,069 ft.), Ironstone mount (4,736 ft.), Mt. Barrow (4,644 ft.), Mt. Wellington (4,166 ft.), with many others exceeding 4,000 ft. in height. Embosomed among the central mount ains, at an average height of about 3,000 ft., are numerous lakes, with a united area of about 170 sq.m., which feed the greater part of the rivers draining the s.e. slope of the island. With the exception of the reclaimed lands, the basaltic plains, and limited tracts
which are unfavorable to the growth of timber trees, the whole island is more or less densely wooded. The vast forests of the western portions of the n. and s. coasts are extensively utilized for timber, and in the former, the work of reclaiming the rich heavily-timbered lands is rapidly progressing, But the major part of the western half of the island is entirely uninhabited, its soil, climate, and inaccessible position offering little inducement to the settler.
Geology and Ifineralogy.—The bed-rocks of the western districts, from Bass's strait to South-west cape, consist of vast bands of slates, schists, and quartz rock, belonging to the azoic or metamorphic series. Next to these come lower paleozoic slates, with con glomerates and dark compact limestones, the latter highly charged with Silurian fossils. Unconformably upon the upturned edges of these rocks lie upper paleozoic sandstones, mudstones, limestones, and conglomerates, also traversed by dikes and masses of green stone and basalt, and with these, reaching an altitude of 4,000 ft. above the sea-level. In the s.e. districts, from the South Esk river on the n. to the Iluon on the s.w., the lower rocks are entirely absent, or concealed beneath the upper paleozoic beds. In the n.e. district, the lower rocks again make their appearance, associated with granite and greenstone, and occasionally traversed by dikes and veins of the true auriferous quartz. Here, again, they are overlaid by upper paleozoic rocks, extensively denuded, and exposing seams of coal from 2 ft. to 14 ft. thick, at various elevations. Tertiary rocks are sparingly distributed. At the mouth of the river Inglis, on the n. coast, are beds of a whitish freestone, attaining in places a thickness of 120 ft., and containing recent shells, with extinct species of trigonia, tere,bratukt, cypraa, valuta, etc. Tertiary lignites are found in the sandy clays of the valleys of the Derwent and Tamar, with impressions of leaves of unknown trees and plants. Over the greater part of the basin of the South Esk, comprising an area of more than 1000 sq.m., extensive deposits of clays, sands, and quartz drift are met with. No distinct traces of glacial action have been observed; but the thick beds of gravel, and the boulders, which must have traveled many miles from their parent rock, afford evi dence of some powerful transporting agency, and were probably deposited in their present sites by the action of icebergs slowly drifting northward at some period prior to the last general elevation of the land.